Thursday, September 12, 2013

September 12th,

Kow Swamp

A beautiful blue sky dawned over the Terrick Terrick National Park. We left this very pretty park before 9.00 am in preparation for the final day of Safari 2013.

We travelled north to check out Kow Swamp which is now a lake/water storage for the area. The lunettes or dunes on the edge of the swamp have been the site for some significant archaeological discoveries of very early aborigines. Between 1968 and 1972 nearly 40 individual skeletons were uncovered around the edge of Kow Swamp. Radiocarbon dates from bone and charcoal associated with the burials, show that the burials span a period from about 13000 to 9500 BP. There was nothing available for visitors to actually see but it certainly appears to be a very valuable historical site.

Onward via Echuca then through dairy farm lands to Shepparton. through Pine Lodge, Dookie and the Warby Ranges .to Milawa. I really enjoyed the drive along the roads of Pine Lodge as I spent my first year of teaching, 1959, at the Pine Lodge school. The school is no longer standing but there is a Commemorative Stone which marks the site of the 'Pine Lodge School No 2099' which operated from 1878 until 1995.

Watch this space for my final entry which will be a map of the route we took over the last eight weeks.